diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index a2d1304ead7..7b749b7a1bd 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -420,6 +420,9 @@ Release 2.1.1-beta - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9880. SASL changes from HADOOP-9421 breaks Secure HA NN. (daryn via
     jing9)
 
+    HADOOP-9887. globStatus does not correctly handle paths starting with a drive
+    spec on Windows. (Chuan Liu via cnauroth)
+
 Release 2.1.0-beta - 2013-08-22
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/Globber.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/Globber.java
index 57ad45e81d4..b0bd8490715 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/Globber.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/Globber.java
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ class Globber {
   /**
    * Translate an absolute path into a list of path components.
    * We merge double slashes into a single slash here.
-   * The first path component (i.e. root) does not get an entry in the list.
+   * POSIX root path, i.e. '/', does not get an entry in the list.
    */
   private static List<String> getPathComponents(String path)
       throws IOException {
@@ -167,8 +167,8 @@ class Globber {
       // Get the absolute path for this flattened pattern.  We couldn't do 
       // this prior to flattening because of patterns like {/,a}, where which
       // path you go down influences how the path must be made absolute.
-      Path absPattern =
-          fixRelativePart(new Path(flatPattern .isEmpty() ? "." : flatPattern ));
+      Path absPattern = fixRelativePart(new Path(
+          flatPattern.isEmpty() ? Path.CUR_DIR : flatPattern));
       // Now we break the flattened, absolute pattern into path components.
       // For example, /a/*/c would be broken into the list [a, *, c]
       List<String> components =
@@ -176,9 +176,19 @@ class Globber {
       // Starting out at the root of the filesystem, we try to match
       // filesystem entries against pattern components.
       ArrayList<FileStatus> candidates = new ArrayList<FileStatus>(1);
-      candidates.add(new FileStatus(0, true, 0, 0, 0,
-          new Path(scheme, authority, "/")));
-
+      if (Path.WINDOWS && !components.isEmpty()
+          && Path.isWindowsAbsolutePath(absPattern.toUri().getPath(), true)) {
+        // On Windows the path could begin with a drive letter, e.g. /E:/foo.
+        // We will skip matching the drive letter and start from listing the
+        // root of the filesystem on that drive.
+        String driveLetter = components.remove(0);
+        candidates.add(new FileStatus(0, true, 0, 0, 0, new Path(scheme,
+            authority, Path.SEPARATOR + driveLetter + Path.SEPARATOR)));
+      } else {
+        candidates.add(new FileStatus(0, true, 0, 0, 0,
+            new Path(scheme, authority, Path.SEPARATOR)));
+      }
+      
       for (String component : components) {
         ArrayList<FileStatus> newCandidates =
             new ArrayList<FileStatus>(candidates.size());